History Franchise / BlazBlue

Gameplay wise, ''[=BlazBlue=]'' is an anime fighter with a strong emphasis on fast gameplay, long combos, and extreme character designs. All the traditional fighting game staples are here, such as airdashing, pushblocking, and lots of [[ChargeMeter meter]] to play with, as well as the "Roman Cancel" (here called the "Rapid Cancel") mechanic making a return from ''Guilty Gear''. The major area where ''[=BlazBlue=]'' differs from the competition is the '''Drive''' mechanic. Each character uses the Drive button differently, because ''every'' member of the cast has a different Drive that informs how they play. Ragna, for instance, regains health with every move performed with the Drive button, while Jin can freeze his opponent solid with sword swipes performed by the Drive button. And that's just the tip of the iceberg- much of this series' depth comes from how each individual character plays around their Drive button and how it informs their lore. BloodKnight Azrael can detect his enemies weak points and then target them for bonus damage with his Drive, SmugSnake Hazama uses his Drive like a grappling hook to shoot about the screen, HospitalHottie Litchi Faye Ling switches between using her SimpleStaff to attack her foes and being a BareFistedMonk when her Drive button is pressed, TheStoic warrior Hakumen uses his Drive to parry attacks... the list goes on. Even the Mu-series, literal MovesetClone characters, play differently due to their Drives. How each character interacts with their Drive and the strategies that emerge from using give a lot of interesting roster depth, as no two characters play alike.

** Everyone has a bit of this in their attacks: Litchi has attacks named after mahjongg hands (Thirteen Orphans, Four Winds, All Green), Carl's attacks are musically-themed (Cantata and Crescendo), Rachel has quite a few flowers (Baden Baden Lily and Sword Iris come to mind), Bang has his "Secret" and "Forbidden" techniques, etc.

* DarkerAndEdgier: Compared to it's predecessor series, ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear'' ([[UpToEleven which itself was on the darker end of fighting games to begin with]]), ''[=BlazBlue=]'' is '''way''' more cynical in tone, to the point of being full-on grimdark. To put things into perspective, the world is a [[CrapsackWorld near-complete Hell-hole being oppressed by a corrupt world government]], most of the "heroes" are either {{anti hero}}es driven by {{revenge}} or other obsessions at their absolute best, or extremists who are almost as bad as said corrupt world government and are willing to resort to pretty disturbing means to accomplish their goals at their worst; with the only reason they can claim the moral high-ground is because the villains they're against are ''[[ForTheEvulz that]]'' '''[[TheSociopath bad]]'''. Whatever clear-cut good guys there are usually are either A.) [[ButtMonkey mocked and belittled]], B.) [[BrokenHero have so much baggage that it's a miracle they can still function]], or C.) both at the same time.

* FanService: The tie-in manga are made of it; if one of the females is even vaguely pretty, then take it and read that she'll appear in a shot that leaves little to the imagination, and some that [[UpToEleven leave absolutely ''nothing'' to the imagination.]]

* NintendoHard: SCORE ATTACK MODE. To elaborate, you must face 10 opponents on a single continue, with the last 4 being [[DeadlyUpgrade "Unlimited"]] characters. Oh, and did I mention that the [[UpToEleven difficulty is even higher than the hardest selectable difficulty in the game?]] Even if you have a 2P controller to buzz in when you're low on health and save you from certain death, you might not survive this without having an aneurysm.

* KudzuPlot: By virtue of having a JigsawPuzzlePlot (especially in the first two games; it's lessening in the third and fourth), the story-line is pretty much confusing to hell and back. The GroundhogDayLoop and TimeyWimeyBall made them more convoluted, and some facts in the later games contradicting with the first game's. Each subsequent games would have a recap of the previous games to help with this, but they're usually trimmed down to their most major, plot-affecting details, leaving minor ones uncovered.

* KudzuPlot: By virtue of having a JigsawPuzzlePlot (especially in the first two games; it's lessening in the third and fourth), the story-line is pretty much a mess. This is partly because it was originally envisioned and world-built as a JRPG - a much more story-friendly format than the FightingGame it eventually became, and in particular, the GroundhogDayLoop and TimeyWimeyBall making them more convoluted, and some facts in the later games contradicting with the first game's. Each subsequent games would have a recap of the previous games to help with this, but they're usually trimmed down to their most major, plot-affecting details, leaving minor ones uncovered.

* IncompetenceInc: Both the world powers being this make it very easy for the villains to exploit everyone. [[spoiler:Seeing as Terumi allegedly founded both, they may be this by design.]]
** The NOL; they are supposed to the the world's police force, and more to the point the best of the best. Yet Ragna can go through them scores at a time without injury, and he's far from the strongest in the setting. ''Teach Me, Miss Litchi'', while only a framing device, also says that the attrition rate is terrible ("That's why there are so many young NOL soldiers; they usually don't live long enough to get old"). Seems to imply that those standards are as high as they like to pretend. Very few suspect the BigBad and allies of anything untoward, despite ''evidently'' being a bunch of creeps; Bang and Kagura both have major issues with the Library's upper management[[spoiler:, which makes sense as they were disciples and stewards of former Imperator Tenjo]], and Makoto is not one to let something petty like national loyalty blind her to government corruption.
** Sector Seven aren't much better, although a lot of that revolves around Kokonoe's ItsAllAboutMe attitude shafting everyone else, and her tendency to practice PoorCommunicationKills. To be fair to her, the whole business with Azrael has shown her colleagues are just as bad, if not worse.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Good god did ''[=BlazBlue=]'' evolve into this trope. What started off as a MinimalistCast with a manageable roster of only 12 characters, has grown into ''35'' by ''Central Fiction''. That's not getting in the [=NPCs=], either.

* RapunzelHair: With some exceptions like [[BoyishShortHair Makoto and Bullet]], every woman has hair that goes ''at least'' down to the middle of their backs, with most extending past their waists or beyond.
** Litchi keeps hers up in a bun outside combat; during combat she styles it into a ponytail.
** Platinum keeps hers hidden in that cloak.
** See those enormous rope-like things hanging off of Tao? Those are ''braids.''

* OverarchingVillain: Terumi [[spoiler:aka Susano'o]] is revealed to be responsible for almost ''everything'' bad that happened in the series. [[note]][[spoiler:Him abandoning his body let humanity discover the existence of a Master Unit through the Susano'o Unit, which (after a series of events involving the Prime Fields) led to the destruction of the original world, forcing the Master Unit and the Origin (the first PF) to recreate it based on her memories, creating the current world.]] He, along with some Magic Guild members, created what would become the NOL. Some years later, he ruined Ragna's childhood by manipulating Jin into cutting Ragna's right arm and kidnapping Saya (while also [[spoiler:tormenting her later with Relius, leading to the creation of Izanami]]). The Ikaruga Civil War? That's all part of his and Relius' plan [[spoiler:to power up Izanami]]. The Burning Fields of Ibukido (which "birthed" Noel) was also part of his plan to create a Black Beast, in cooperation with Sector Seven, although he messed up on that (as Take-mikazuchi prevented it from happening). In the present, he, together with Hazama, plays as part of the NOL Army, manipulating every key players for his own needs in hopes for summoning Amaterasu into the world and destroying it. He briefly stops being the BigBad when [[spoiler:Izanami steps up and abandons him to his fate, leading him to be "killed" by Hakumen, though he still manages to survive by self-observation. He needs a vessel to keep himself alive (as self- observation has limits), but since he was separated from Hazama, the two are unable to merge again]]; but then he still runs his own scheme and manages to step up again when [[spoiler:he manages to acquire the Hihiirokane from Clavis Alucard's grave and uses it in conjunction with Ouroboros to tear out Hakumen's soul from the Susano'o Unit, allowing him to take back the unit as his body once more.]] Once he does so, he announces that he'll obtain the True Azure and surpass Amaterasu, and aims to destroy everything and then create a new world where he's feared more than the Black Beast.[[/note]]

** [[WhoWearsShortShorts Bullet's birthday (August 2nd) is Pants Day in Japan.]]

* SpecialEditionTitle: not in the games, but in Blue Radio, the title card changes whenever the episode is talking about SomethingCompletelyDifferent - in the ''VideoGame/ArcanaHeart'' episode the show is named "Aruraji" while in ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear'' episode it's called "Giruraji".

* ''[=BlazBlue=] Alternative: Dark War'': A mobile game for [=iOS=] and Android.

* PoorCommunicationKills: A lot of the bad things that happened could have been easily avoided if the more knowledgeable people didn't decide at inopportune moments to grab the IdiotBall (Kokonoe & Rachel are probably the two biggest offenders), or you know, take head and stick out of their own asses and actually tell people who need to know important information. For instance, Kokonoe, though Lambda, telling Noel she's the eye, but follows up with "I don't have time to explain". It could've prevented the whole Mu-12 thing, but no, she resorts to type. Again. How thoroughly this continues into ''Chronophantasma'' remains to be seen.

* PoorCommunicationKills: With a generous helping of WhatAnIdiot; basically, a lot of the bad things that happened could have been easily avoided if the more knowledgeable people didn't decide at inopportune moments to grab the IdiotBall (Kokonoe & Rachel are probably the two biggest offenders), or you know, take head and stick out of their own asses and actually tell people who need to know important information. For instance, Kokonoe, though Lambda, telling Noel she's the eye, but follows up with "I don't have time to explain". It could've prevented the whole Mu-12 thing, but no, she resorts to type. Again. How thoroughly this continues into ''Chronophantasma'' remains to be seen.

* HandHidingSleeves: The Kaka clan all wear Hoodie-like outfits with sleeves that extend past their arms. They're sealed at the end, apart from slots for their claws.

* HypnotizeThePrincess: Litchi. To Noel. With a chibi-panda.
** [[spoiler:What Hazama does to her in ''Continuum Shift'' is a much more sinister version.]]

Several years later, the [=NOL=] has evolved into a full-on dictatorship. A young man named [[TheHero Ragna]], armed with a strange blade, dark magic, a missing arm and a bad attitude begins systematically destroying dozens of Library outposts for seemingly no reason. His incredible strength leads to the [=NOL=] saddling him with their biggest bounty yet and declaring him wanted dead or alive. Ragna flees to the city of Kagutsuchi, where he is pursued by all manner of warriors and magicians out for the bounty on his head. He also attracts the attention of [[TheRival Jin Kisaragi]], a Library agent with a ''very'' pronounced hatred for Ragna beyond any reasonable measure, and [[NaiveNewcomer Noel Vermillion]], a Library lieutenant with a cloudy past sent to retrieve Jin before he gets himself killed.

''[=BlazBlue=]''[[note]][[ItIsPronouncedTroPAY pronounced "blaze-blue," or "blay-blue" in Japanese]][[/note]] is a FightingGame series by Creator/ArcSystemWorks, and a SpiritualSuccessor to ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear''. This series has about as large a fandom, if not more, as its technical daddy.

* ItIsPronouncedTroPAY: The overseas version pronounces the title as BLAZE-blue, while the Japanese version goes BLAY-blue.
** And while we're at it, it's Nu-13, not Vee-13. While the symbol in front of her number is officially the Greek "Nu", not the letter "V", even characters in the storyline sometimes call her by what it initially looks like. There are a couple of instances when she is referred to as "VEE-thirteen", spoken out-loud. It specifically yet inexplicably happens only one time in EXTEND, but is pronounced as "Nu" from then on afterward. Even the main characters apparently can initially get confused when they see her "name" on paper, or the VA just slipped and no one bothered to fix it. Also, it can sometimes be pronounced as "Noo" when it should've been "New".

* LovecraftLite: The series teeters between this and CosmicHorrorStory. Although the series resembles a typical JRPG world, its lore is much closer to lovecraftian, such the biggest players in the series being effectively gods whilst everyone else is little more than at the mercy of their whims, [[GroundhogDayLoop the world always resetting]], and [[EldritchLocation the Boundary]] that corrupts anyone who goes through it. In spite of these stacked odds, by the end of the 4th game, [[spoiler:two of those godlike entities and the world is free from being looped again and again, though not without major prices being paid]].

* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: A rare case where the entire ''franchise'' is one. Due to legal issues, Creator/ArcSystemWorks lost the rights to be able to develop more ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear'' games for a brief while. During that duration, [=ArcSys=] ended up creating ''[=BlazBlue=]'' as their new flagship fighting game franchise. This was especially apparent in the character designs and archetypes, which for some characters felt like complete 1:1 comparisons with the mainstays in GG. Unlike most examples of this trope, fans by and large warmly accepted ''[=BlazBlue=]'' as the SpiritualSuccessor to ''Guilty Gear.''

* DarkerAndEdgier: Compared to it's predecessor series, ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear'' ([[UpToEleven which itself was on the darker end of fighting games to begin with]]), ''[=BlazBlue=]'' is '''way''' more cynical in tone, to the point of being full-on grimdark. To put things into perspective, the world is a [[CrapsackWorld near-complete Hell-hole being oppressed by a corrupt world government]], most of the "heroes" are either {{anti hero}}es driven by {{revenge}} or other obsessions at their absolute best, or extremists who are [[NotSoDifferent almost as bad]] as said corrupt world government and are willing to resort to pretty disturbing means to accomplish their goals at their worst; with the only reason they can claim the moral high-ground is because the villains they're against are ''[[ForTheEvulz that]]'' '''[[TheSociopath bad]]'''. Whatever clear-cut good guys there are usually are either A.) [[ButtMonkey mocked and belittled]], B.) [[BrokenHero have so much baggage that it's a miracle they can still function]], or C.) both at the same time.

Gameplay wise, ''[=BlazBlue=]'' is an anime fighter with a strong emphasis on fast gameplay, long combos, and extreme character designs. All the traditional fighting game staples are here, such as airdashing, pushblocking, and lots of [[ChargeMeter meter]] to play with, as well as the "Roman Cancel" (here called the "Rapid Cancel") mechanic making a return from ''Guilty Gear''. The major area where ''[=BlazBlue=]'' differs from the competition is the '''Drive''' mechanic. Each character uses the Drive button differently, because ''every member of the cast has a different Drive'' that informs how they play. Ragna, for instance, regains health with every move performed with the Drive button, while Jin can freeze his opponent solid with sword swipes peformed by the Drive button. And that's just the tip of the iceberg- much of this series' depth comes from how each individal character reacts and plays around their Drive button and how it informs their lore. BloodKnight Azrael can detect his enemies weak points and then target them for bonus damage with his Drive SmugSnake Hazama uses his Drive like a grappling hook to shoot about the screen, HotNurse Litchi Faye Ling switches between her SimpleStaff and being a BareFistedMonk when her Drive button is pressed, TheStoic warrior Hakumen uses his Drive to parry attacks... the list goes on. Even the Mu-series, literal MovesetClone characters, play differently due to their Drives. How each character interacts with their Drive and the strategies that emerge from using give a lot of interesting roster depth, as no two characters play alike.

* Considering [[AndIMustScream his]] background, this trope is just icing the cake on how ''freaky'' Arakune is. For a less synchronized version, listen to Ragna when he's under the effect of [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Blood KKain.]]

Long ago, the world was on the brink of destruction. The [[EldritchAbomination Black Beast]] laid waste to the world and was on the cusp of wiping out the human racd before six legendary heroes emerged and, using their magic and martial prowess combined, battled the creature. Teaching the secrets of magic to humanity (and helping them with creating a form of {{Magitek}} to defend themselves), the Six Heroes worked together to kill Black Beast and saved humanity. But the cost was great- the battle with the creature left much of the world polluted, forcing humanity to move into hastily-constructed cities in the mountains. World governments collapsed, and from them sprang the [[OneWorldOrder NOL]], aka the Novus Orbis Librarium, to help guide humanity into the future.